KUKU WV Disertation the Case for Social Accountability

7/31/2019 KUKU WV Disertation the Case for Social Accountability

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GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

The Case for Social Accountability: A Case Study ofWorld Visions Citizen Voice and

Action (CVA) Program in Northern India

Dissertation

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the

Master in Development Studies

By

Itunu Kuku

(Nigeria)

Supervisor: Jean Louis Arcand

Geneva

2012


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Abstract

Vast numbers of poor citizens in India must contend on a daily basis with sub-standard

public services in health, education and other areas. This poor state of services is often the cause

of weak accountability on the part of local service providers and public officials towards citizens.

However various community based activities to keep these officials and service providers

accountable in order to improve services, are being performed to change this situation. These

activities fall into a category of development initiatives referred to as social accountability

approaches. This study presents a case study of how World Vision India implemented such a

social accountability approach called Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) in the village of

Dingerhedi in the north of India.

Using key informant interviews of World Vision India staff and an FGD with Dingerhedi

villagers, this study found that CVA as implemented in Dingerhedi contained certain diversions

from World Visions general guidelines for implementation of the program, however these

variations denoted flexibility and a readiness to adapt for context on the part of both staff and

villagers. It was also discovered that the simple community based activities of CVA had a

widespread effect on improving village services in the areas of health, education, public food

distribution, and many others.

This case study points out the key factors that led to the success of CVA in Dingerhedi

and provides recommendations on how the program could be improved further and replicated in

different contexts.


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Acknowledgements

I would like to express sincere appreciation to the following people without which the

completion of this study would not have been possible. First of all I would like to express

gratitude to the staff of World Vision International especially Stefan Germann, Jeff Hall and

Thiago Luchesi who provided guidance and support for this study. I would also like to convey

appreciation to the wonderful staff of World Vision India who graciously assisted in providing

the logistics that facilitated crucial aspects of this study. I would like to specifically thank

Aashish Masih, Harish Chand, K.A Jayakumar and Anitha Sadasivam for their help in this

respect. I would also like to thank my good friend Namrata Achowe who provided translation

from English to Hindi and Hindi to English during the focus group discussion.

I cannot end this section without acknowledging the moral support provided by my

family and friends which spurred me on to complete this study with excellence.


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Table of ContentsAbstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2

Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................... 3

List of Tables and Figures............................................................................................................................. 6

Chapter 1....................................................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 7

Research Goals ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 9

Scope and Limitations of the Study ..................................................................................................... 10

Organization of the Study ................................................................................................................... 10

The State of Public Service Provision in India ................................................................................... 11

Chapter 2..................................................................................................................................................... 15Review of Related Literature .................................................................................................................. 15

Participation in Development............................................................................................................. 15

The Role of Development Agencies in Promoting Genuine Participation.......................................... 17

Empowerment and Human Rights....................................................................................................... 18

The Good Governance Agenda ........................................................................................................... 19

Social Accountability .......................................................................................................................... 20

Dimensions of Social Accountability Initiatives ................................................................................. 22

Types of Social Accountability Initiatives........................................................................................... 25

Key enablers of Social Accountability Initiatives ............................................................................... 27

Chapter 3..................................................................................................................................................... 29

World Vision Citizen Voice and Action ................................................................................................. 29

What is Citizen Voice and Action?...................................................................................................... 30

Objectives and Elements of CVA ........................................................................................................ 30

Different Phases of CVA ..................................................................................................................... 31

Background on Dingerhedi Village .................................................................................................... 37

Characteristics of Dingerhedi............................................................................................................. 38

Dingerhedi CBOs................................................................................................................................ 38

Chapter 4..................................................................................................................................................... 39

Findings and Analysis............................................................................................................................. 39

1. CVA as Practiced in Dingerhedi................................................................................................. 39


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2. CVA to Improve Public Services ................................................................................................. 49

The Right to Information Act.............................................................................................................. 61

Chapter 5..................................................................................................................................................... 64

Analysis of Findings ............................................................................................................................... 64

Key Enablers of CVA Success in Dingerhedi...................................................................................... 64

Recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 65

Chapter 6..................................................................................................................................................... 71

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 71

References................................................................................................................................................... 74

Appendix I: Transcript of Key Informant Interview................................................................................... 78

Appendix II: Transcript of FGD ................................................................................................................. 87

Appendix III: Interview on RTI Act with Mohammed Arif. .................................................................... 104


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List of Tables and Figures

Figure 1: Phases of CVA...31

Table 1: Dimensions of Social Accountability.22

Table 2: Description of CVA practice in Dingerhedi as compared with CVA GuidanceNotes..48

Table 3: Services Improved Through the Use of the Citizen Voice and Action program in

Dingerhedi Village.........58

Table 4: Dimensions of CVA in Dingerhedi.69


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Chapter 1

Introduction

In spite of recent economic success, vast numbers of Indias large population suffer from

sub-standard public services. This is evidenced by Indias poor indicators in the fields of health

and education amongst other public services. Indias child mortality rate alone corresponds to

one-fifth of all under-five deaths worldwide (Singh et al. 2009, 1). On an average day, 40% of

doctors are absent from work in Indian rural health clinics and about one in four teachers are

absent from public schools (Chaudhury and Devarajan 2006, 94). Though various efforts have

been made by the Indian government to improve public service delivery, these initiatives have

largely been ineffective in improving the situation of those who need them the most (World

Bank 2004). Cases of absenteeism and inefficiency on the part of service providers have in many

cases rendered the poor situation worse. A lack of accountability on the part of public service

providers towards those that they serve has been blamed as a leading cause of this situation

(Bjrkman and Svensson 2009, 735; Bajpai et al. 2010, 5).

Efforts to increase accountability at the local level present some promise in resolving

some of these problems. Various organizations have implemented initiatives aimed at improving

public service delivery primarily by addressing issues of poor accountability of service providers

towards citizens (World Bank 2004; Arroyo 2004; Sirker & Cosic 2007). Social accountability is

described as an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement, i.e., in

which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations who participate directly or

indirectly in exacting accountability (Malena et al. 2004, 3).

This study focuses on a development program of World Vision International (WVI)

referred to as Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) which tackles the problems of poor service


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delivery through increasing accountability on the part of service providers towards the citizens

that they serve. CVA is a community based social accountability tool which aims to increase

dialogue between ordinary citizens and the institutions that provide services to the public. It also

aims to improve accountability from the administrative and political sections of government

(both national and local) in order to improve the delivery of public services (Winterford 2009,

1).

This study presents the case study of how this social accountability approach was used to

improve public service provision in a poor Indian community. Using the small village of

Dingerhedi in the north of India as the backdrop, this study demonstrates how CVA was

implemented there as well as the many ways that public services provision in the village

improved due to the program.

Research Goals

There were two goals to this research. The first of these was to describe exactly how

CVA was implemented in Dingerhedi village by World Vision India. CVA is carried out in

twenty-nine different countries around the world in over two hundred communities (World

Vision International 2011) and the practice of CVA differs based on contextual situations in the

community. An official WVI document referred to as the CVA Guidance Notes extensively

details how CVA is to be implemented on the ground but is intentionally flexible in order to be

adapted to each specific context (Winterford 2009). The first objective of this study was thus to

discover how CVA was practiced in Dingerhedi as compared to the main principles laid out in

the Guidance Notes. Important areas of congruence as well as dissimilarity in theory and practice

are pointed out.


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The second goal of this study was to discover the different ways that Citizen Voice and

Action affected the state of public services in Dingerhedi village. The aim here was to discover if

service provision in the village really improved due to CVA and if so in what specific aspects.

CVA is a development approach in which the issues that the community members choose to

address are decided communally. Therefore this study aimed to discover exactly public service

delivery problems the villagers chose to address with the tools of CVA as well as how the

current state of these services differs from the situation prior to CVAs implementation

Methodology

To achieve the first goal of this study, first-hand information from World Vision staff in

India was sought on how the program was implemented. To acquire this information a key

informant interview was conducted with two of the staff at World Vision India working on the

CVA program. The interview was semi-structured and in it the key informants described in detail

how the program was practiced.

In addition, a focus group discussion (FGD) with beneficiaries of CVA was conducted to

acquire their perspective of CVAs implementation in their village. The responses from both the

key informant interview and the FGD were used to arrive at a description of how the different

phases of CVA outlined in the Guidance Notes were put into practice in Dingerhedi village.

Important points of symmetry and dissimilarity between this description and the process detailed

in the official Guidance Notes were pointed out and analyzed.

In order to achieve the second goal of this study, an FGD (the same one used for goal

one) was conducted with villagers of Dingerhedi. The FGD questions asked villagers to describe

how they used CVA to improve the public services in their village. The questions aimed to


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discover the state of the each public service before the implementation of CVA, the current state

of said public service and the steps taken by villagers to achieve this change. Seven village

members, two women and five men, were part of the FGD and their selection as well as the

organization of the FGD was coordinated with the assistance of WV India staff based on the

availability of villagers.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

It was not within the scope of this study to perform a comparison of CVA to other social

accountability approaches used in India. Though some of these approaches are mentioned in this

study by way of illustration, CVA in Dingerhedi was the sole social accountability approach

analyzed. This study faced certain limitations regarding data collection on Dingerhedi from

World Vision India. Data confirming changes in the village due to CVA was unavailable when

requested. As a result this study focused primarily on the benefits and improvements due to CVA

experiencedby Dingerhedi villagers and recounted during the FGD.

Organization of the Study

This rest of this chapter presents a background on the state of public service provision in

India. Chapter two consists of a literature review which collates pertinent theories and concepts

which have contributed to the development of social accountability and community based

methods to improve public service provision. Chapter three presents a background on World

Vision International and introduces Citizen Voice and Action as a social accountability tool

aimed to improve dialogue between citizens and public service providers to ultimately improve

the quality of public service delivery in communities. Referring to the Guidance Notes, this


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chapter outlines the principles of CVA as well as its different phases. Chapter three also provides

a description of Dingerhedi village and situates it within World Vision Indias overall

community development strategy. Chapter four answers the research questions by presenting the

information gathered from the interviews and FGD in Dingerhedi village. Chapter five presents

an analysis of this information gathered by pointing to factors that led to the success of CVA in

Dingerhedi as well as recommendations to further improve the program. Chapter six presents a

conclusion of the study.

The State of Public Service Provision in India

The vast majority of Indias billion strong population rely heavily on their government

for essential services such as health, education, food security and protection. Unfortunately for

these citizens, services are often sub-par if at all present. Using the examples of health and

education, this section briefly examines some statistics which reflect to what extent public

services are failing the Indian people.

The state of Primary Education in India

Public expenditure on education in 2006 (the latest year available for this statistic) was at

3.1% of Indias GDP. This was a stark decrease from 4.4% in 2000 (World Bank 2012). For the

sake of comparison this amount is lower than the percentage Sierra Leone spent on education in

2007 which was 3.3% of its GDP (Ibid.). Another similar indicator is the total public expenditure

per student in primary education as a percentage of GDP per capita. In 2003 this figure was at

11.5% in India. In 2009 the figure dropped to 8.9% (World Bank 2012a). These two statistics can

be interpreted as a low commitment to education on the part of the Indian government which

ultimately is reflected in Indias poor adult literacy rates. In 2010 only 61.1% of the population


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aged 15 and above were literate an actual reduction from the figure of 62.8% recorded in 2006

(World Bank 2012b).

Other education figures are even less encouraging. Indias pupil-teacher ratio actually

worsened from 35 primary school students to 1 teacher, in 1990 to 40 primary school students to

1 teacher in 2004 (UNESCO 2012). The Indian government in 1995 instituted the National

Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education stipulating that children in public

schools all across the country would be served food (usually wheat porridge or rice) on the

school premises during the lunch break (Afridi 2011, 1639). This mid-day meal program aimed

to increase school attendance but Afridis study shows a positive effect of the program on school

participation rates for girls but an insignificant effect on males (Ibid).

Another problem with Indias public education system is the rampant absenteeism on the

part of teachers. Chaudhury et al. peg absentee rates in India at 24% for teachers based on

random unannounced spot checks(Chaudhury et al. 2006, 92). This means that on any given

day 24% of teachers will be absent from the classes where they are meant to be teaching. These

and other deplorable statistics demonstrate the poor quality of services that Indian pupils must

deal with on a daily basis. The situation is not much different regarding the health services in the

country as the following section shows.

The state of Public Health Services in India

In 2010 the Indian government spent 4.1% of its GDP on health expenditure, however

this sum represented a decrease from the 4.8% spent in 2002 (The World Health Organization

2012) implying once again a decrease in commitment on the part of the government towards

health. Indias rural primary health care system has been described as such:


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while being extensive it [healthcare system] is wasteful, inefficient and delivers

very low quality health services, so much so that the private sector has become

the de facto provider of health services in India (Bajpai et al. 2010, 5).

Progress was made by the Indian government in terms of increasing the number of

primary health centers in the country from 57,363 in 1981 to 163,181 in 1999 (Paul 2006, 46),

however the utilization of public health facilities in India as of 2006 is at a meager 20% (Ibid.).

Perhaps the biggest problem with Indian health services is the fact the people most in need of

them are those for whom it is most difficult to access. Much variation exists in the use of health

services across the country due to socioeconomic stratifications (Balarajan et al. 2011, 506).

Indias public health services are also plagued by problems of insufficient availability of drugs

and other supplies, poor-quality work environments, and inadequate provider training and

knowledge (Balarajan et al. 2011, 508). Absenteeism isnt only a concern for public school

teachers. Chaudhury et al. peg absentee rates for health service providers in India at a staggering

40% (Chaudhury et al. 2006, 92).

Two important reasons contributing to the poor state of health services in India are: a)

unwillingness of qualified doctors and healthcare professionals to accept the posts and b) non-

existent or weak accountability of those who do accept the posts (Bajpai et al. 2010, 5).

Bjrrkman and Svensson (2007) show that community based measures to improve

accountability on the part of health service providers through monitoring of their services leads

to concrete improvement in health outputs. Their study (conducted in Uganda) employed the use

of randomized control trials to assess the impact of these community based monitoring activities

aimed at improving accountability of health service providers. Their findings show that this

intervention led to a significant drop in under-five mortality of about 33%, as well as a 20%

increase in the use of outpatient services (Ibid.).


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Such community based measures to improve service delivery through addressing the lack

of accountability of service providers towards service users show promise. The following section

takes a look at the theoretical elements behind these social accountability approaches and

presents further examples of their use.


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Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

This section presents a summary of some of the major theories and concepts which have

contributed to the formation of social accountability as an approach to development. Beginning

with the advent of participatory development and continuing through to the mainstreaming of the

good governance agenda, the evolution of social accountability is traced. This section ends by

outlining the different dimensions of social accountability initiatives and highlights a few

examples of how these approaches have been used so far based on the relatively recent literature

on the field.

Participation in Development

As stated earlier in Chapter 1, social accountability is an approach towards building

accountability that relies on civic engagement, i.e., in which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil

society organizations who participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability (Malena et

al. 2004, 3). Key to this definition is the central role that citizens play in demanding

accountability. Since the mid-80s, the participation of citizens in processes leading to their own

development has become widely recognized as a necessary element of development initiatives

and is even virtually synonymous with development itself (Green 2000, 69).

Participatory development can be defined as a partnership based on the dialogue among

the various actors (stakeholders), during which the agenda is set jointly, and local views and

indigenous knowledge are deliberately sought and respected (Schneider et al. 1995, 30).

Participatory development includes involvement of citizens in all stages of development


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programs including the initial planning phases that are often crucial to the success or failure of

projects.

In his seminal work, Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Robert Chambers

(1983) expressed frustration with what he termed rural development tourism characterized by

quick visits by outsiders to rural areas in order to acquire statistics on rural poverty without

paying any real attention to the poor people present. He recommended Rapid Rural Appraisal

(RRA) as a poverty assessment strategy which presented a middle ground between the

superficial information gathering of rural development tourism and the costly and time

consuming full-scale research.

The opportunity presented by RRA is, by avoiding lengthy methods, so to save

and budget time that the poor are let in as individuals and as families, to be

learnt from and understood in more depth. If the tyranny of quantification can be

held in check, there is more time to find out about relationships and processes.

Techniques of RRA carefully developed and used can raise awareness and

understanding of rural poverty, and improve action to attack it (Chambers 1983,

200).

According to Chambers in order for this to be achieved a reversal in learning was

necessary whereby outsiders learn from the farmers and local inhabitants of rural areas. Rural

people have indigenous knowledge on crucial issues that outsiders can learn from (Chambers

1983, 203). Chambers lists sitting, asking and listening, learning from the poorest, learning

indigenous technical knowledge, joint R and D, learning by working and simulation games as

practical ways that outsiders may learn from the rural poor (1983, 209). Around the mid-1980s

participation entered RRA vocabulary (Chambers 1994, 957) and RRA eventually became

referred to Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). PRA is described as a growing family of

approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their

knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act (Chambers 1994, 953).


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PRA and other inclusive techniques of poverty assessment increased in their popularity

due to the realization that the involvement of those on the ground led to better project

performances (Blackburn et. al 2000, 1). The World Bank played a leading role in the

mainstreaming of participation in this respect, and their 2000 document entitled Mainstreaming

Participation in Developmentset out to do just that (Ibid.). The document also recommended

that the involvement of citizens and the poor should extend from poverty assessment to actual

poverty reduction programs (Ibid.). Participation thus became a buzzword for development

programs.

However, in practice, the extent of participation involved in development programs often

varies. Shelly Arnstein (1969) categorized eight different levels of participation using the image

of a ladder where the rungs of this ladder represent increasing levels of participation. Her ladder

of participation consists of the following rungs; (a) manipulation (b) therapy (c) informing (d)

consultation (e) placation (f) partnership (g) delegated power and (h) Citizen control. Shelly

claimed that the lowest two rungs are in fact forms of non-participation though they masquerade

as participation. In manipulation citizens are exploited in an attempt to improve public relations

status of agencies claiming to have a program that involve citizens though this is often nothing

more than token involvement. In contrast, the highest rung on this ladder of participation, that of

citizen control, involves just as the term suggests citizen control of resources and decision

making (Arnstein 1969, 217-223).

The Role of Development Agencies in Promoting Genuine Participation

In light of the potential that exists for the concept of participation to be exploited in favor

of manipulation or therapy, development agencies have a big responsibility to ensure that their


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endeavors promote genuine participation. It seems paradoxical to highlight the importance of the

role of external development agencies in promoting the participation of poor citizens in

development programs since one would assume the primary role must belong to the poor.

However due to the fact that the poor are often trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and

exclusion, change must often come from without (Burkey 1993, 75). External development

agencies may act as catalysts, breaking this vicious cycle and work with them towards their self-

reliant participatory development (Ibid.).

Empowerment and Human Rights

Participation is not only an enabler of poverty reduction but it can be seen as a goal in

itself because of how inextricably linked it is to empowerment. Empowerment is simply the

process of enhancing an individuals or groups capacity to make purposive choices and to

transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes (Alsop et al. 2006). This lack of a

capacity to make such purposive choices is perfectly exemplified by the exclusion of the poor

from processes that lead to their development. When poor citizens are able to participate in these

processes, from their very inception to the end, this helplessness is replaced by empowerment.

The 2004 World Development Report made mention of the importance of empowerment as it

relates to accountability and service provision;

When poor citizens are empowered, whether on their own or in alliance with

others, their demand for accountability can make politicians respond in ways

that compensate for weaknesses elsewhere in the service delivery chain (World

Bank 2004, 78).

The empowerment of citizens enables them to be able demand better quality and better

services from their governments and become active agents of change in their communities. The

emphasis on demand is linked to the eminence of the Rights Based Approach to development


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which gained prominence around the same time towards the end of the 1990s (Cornwall and

Nyamu-Musembi 2004).

Perhaps the most important source of added value in the human rights approach

is the emphasis it places on the accountability of policy-makers and other actors

whose actions have an impact on the rights of people. Rights imply duties, andduties demand accountability (UNHCR in Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi 2004,

1417).

The above quote sheds light on the fact that it is the right of citizens to expect more from

policy makers and other actors responsible for service provision. Accountability on the part of

public officials towards citizens is no longer only expected but actually demanded.

The Good Governance Agenda

Aside from the rise of participatory approaches to development and that of the rights

based approach to development, the ascendancy of another critical rallying cry in development

also had a large role to play in forming the basis of social accountability. In the 1990s the good

governance agenda placed a high premium on the importance of accountability in reducing

poverty and promoting development in poor countries (Ahmad 2008, 1). Though often criticized

for having too many definitions to be useful (Rhodes 1997, 15), the World Bank defines

governance as the process by which authority is exercised in the management of the economic

and social resources, with a view to development (World Bank 1992, 1).

Good governance refers to the ideal form of governance characterized by it being

participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient,

equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law (UNESCAP 2012). Governments were

pressured to embody these characteristics as pre-conditions to receiving development assistance

(Nanda 2006, 272). It has been said that a focus on aid conditionality simply extended from the

economic realm to the political realm (Santiso 2001, 1).


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This conditionality coupled with the multi-faceted, wide-reaching extent of the reforms

required by states, led some to critique the good governance agenda as being unrealistic (Grindle

2004). Grindle argued that getting good governance as a route toward poverty reduction can

overwhelm the commitment of even the most energetic reformers (Grindle 2004, 525-526). He

proposed a good enough governance emphasizing the bare minimum requirements of minimally

acceptable government performance and civil society engagement that does not significantly

hinder economic and political development and that permits poverty reduction initiatives to go

forward (Grindle 2004, 526).

Nevertheless the focus remained on what states must do. Accountability in this

framework was viewed as the responsibility of states either towards their citizens or to external

entities. Malena et al. refer to this traditional understanding of accountability as an over-

prioritization of the supply-side of governance through the use of political checks and

balances, auditing requirements and other such broad government focused tools (2004, 1). They

speak of a shift from this towards a more citizen focused understanding of accountability in

governance.

More recently, increased attention has been paid to the demand side of good

governance that is to strengthening the voice and capacity of citizens

(especially poor citizens) to directly demand greater accountability and

responsiveness from public officials and service providers (Ibid.).

Social Accountability

This focus on the role of citizens to directly demand greater accountability from public

officials and service providers forms the essence of social accountability approaches. The World

Bank describes social accountability as an approach towards building accountability that relies

on civic engagement, i.e., in which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations who

participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability (Malena et al. 2004, 3). It must be


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clarified that social accountability is not meant to replace the efforts made on the front of supply-

side governance but it is meant to complement these efforts.

The World Banks 2004 World Development Report entitled Making Services Work for

the Poor focused on how service providers can be held accountable towards those that they

serve by these very citizens. The report stresses the central role that citizens must play in the

service delivery cycle in order to improve the quality of public services as the quote below

demonstrates;

The fact that there are strong examples where services do work means

governments and citizens can do better. How? By putting poor people at the

center of service provision: by enabling them to monitor and discipline service

providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening theincentives for providers to serve the poor. (World Bank 2004, 1)

The above quote states that citizens are to monitor and even discipline service providers,

however such a situation is far from reality in many poor countries. Problems of public service

delivery abound and citizens often face no choice but to get by with them. The 2004 World

Development Report lists four of these problems. First of all government budgets are not

adequately spent on making services available to the poor people who need them the most.

Secondly even when funds are allocated specifically for the poor, the money often does not reach

the specific frontline service providers. Thirdly absenteeism on the part of service providers is

rampant mainly because of a lack of proper incentives for them to show up and do their jobs

well. In addition, when service providers do show up, many mistreat clients because of

imbalanced power relations between them. The final problem is a lack of demand on the part of

citizens for public services due to a plethora or reasons ranging from disillusions and frustrations

with the system to cultural considerations (World Bank 2004, 2-6).


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The problems stated above can be tackled through social accountability initiatives which

take different shapes and forms and focus on solving different problems of the public service

delivery chain. The following sub-section looks closer at social accountability initiatives

Dimensions of Social Accountability Initiatives

Ackerman describes six dimensions of social accountability initiatives which are shown

in Table 1 below. Each dimension follows a continuum from one extreme to the other and

according Ackerman each social accountability project should aim to have a healthy balance of

the two extremes per dimension (Ackerman 2005, 26). The six dimensions: are incentive

structure; accountability for what; level of institutionalization; depth of involvement;

inclusiveness of participation; and Branches of Government. Ackerman claims that for most

social accountability initiatives these dimensions are often skewed to the left side of the

continuum. Each dimension is described in more depth below.

Table 1: Dimensions of Social Accountability.

Incentive Structure Punishments Rewards

Accountability for What Rule following Performance

Level of Institutionalization Low High

Depth of Involvement External Internal

Inclusiveness of participation Elitist Inclusive

Branches of Government Executive Judicial Legislative

(Ackerman 2005, 23)


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1. Incentive structureA factor crucial to the success of social accountability initiatives is the balancing of

punishments and rewards to service providers. According to Ackerman most social

accountability initiatives focus heavily on punitive measures to reprimand providers for poor

service delivery rather than techniques that encourage them to perform better. Initiatives that

provide positive incentives for good performance must also be present (Ackerman 2005, 13).

2. Accountability for What?This refers to the tradeoff that exists between public service providers being held

accountable for being able to properly follow the rules or being able to deliver quality services

Rule following puts pressure on government and public officials to follow their own rules and to

avoid back-door deals, and other forms of corruption. Ackerman claims that an emphasis on rule

following leads to rigid evaluations of government programs that tend to stifle efficient action on

the part of public officials (2005, 14). Social accountability initiatives are to balance the

emphasis placed on rule following with an emphasis on monitoring the quality of services

provided.

3. Level of InstitutionalizationThis refers to how well the practices and activities of the social accountability initiative

are integrated into formal structures of accountability and governance instituted by the

government. Social accountability initiatives tend to not be well institutionalized. Most are

performed by NGOs or even individuals acting independently from the government. Ackerman

claims that the success and sustainability of these initiatives depends on them being more


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institutionalized. Governments can factor these social accountability initiatives into laws to

achieve this. But the extreme end of this continuum is obviously not desirable, as this risks co-

opting of the process by governments (Ackerman 2005, 16).

4. Depth of InvolvementThis refers to the level of involvement that citizens have in government processes such as

development planning and budget preparation. Normally citizens have a very limited level of

involvement, limited mainly to monitoring of decisions already taken by making use of

government transparency tools. The healthy balance should lie somewhere in the middle here as

too much involvement is also less than ideal. It may compromise the objectivity of citizens

towards the goal they have of keeping the government in check if they are too heavily involved

in it (Ackerman 2005, 19).

5. Inclusiveness of ParticipationThe next dimension stresses the importance of how participation needs to be well

organized in order to avoid a situation where a cacophony of voices mires the best path to

achieving accountability. According to Ackerman the easiest path to achieve this is to limit

participation to a few key representatives, but this easy way out should be avoided in favor of

taking the time and effort to structure wide ranging participation of various actors and

representatives in a fruitful manner (2005, 22).


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6. Branches of GovernmentThe final dimension of social accountability initiatives refers to which branch of

government citizen advocacy to improve services is targeted towards. According to Ackerman,

social accountability initiatives tend to be targeted towards the executive branch because of the

central role this branch has in the managing public resources. However efforts to put pressure on

the other two branches of government for improved public services should not be neglected.

Legislatures, according to Ackerman, constitute an untapped goldmine in terms of potential for

social accountability initiatives (Ackerman 2005, 24).

Types of Social Accountability Initiatives

This section now presents different examples of social accountability initiatives that have

been put into practice in different contexts. Sirker and Cosic (2007) conducted a mapping of

social accountability initiatives worldwide and stated that these approaches tend to fall in three

different categories based on their area of focus. They are (1) informed budget advocacy (2)

public service improvements (3) Monitoring by public watchdogs. An explanation and a few

examples for each type of initiative are mentioned below.

1. Informed Budget advocacy

These social accountability approaches focus the crux of their activities on enabling

citizens to exact accountability on governments primarily through processes related to

government budgets. Activities include raising awareness on budget related issues and promoting

budget literacy amongst citizens as well as pointing out gaps in government resource allocations.

An example of this approach found in Sirker and Cosic is the Independent Budget Analysis


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program initiated by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability India. This program

counts amongst its objectives, to initiate public argument and debate macroeconomic issues

from peoples perspective and to demystify the budget and the budgetary process to make it

more transparent and citizen friendly (Sirker& Cosic 2007, 13).

2. Public Service ImprovementsThese social accountability approaches aim engage citizen action to improve the quality

of local services in the communities. An example of this is the Citizens Charter for Public

Service Accountability conducted by another Indian NGO called Peoples Power. A citizens

charter is a document informing citizens of the basic standards that they can expect regarding

public services. It details per service exactly what citizens are entitled to from their government,

the official cost of a particular service as well as procedures to follow in the case of non-

adherence on the part of government (Sirker & Cosic 2007, 34). The aim here is that citizens be

well informed of their rights in order that they may demand better services from the government.

The initiative led by Peoples Power publishes theses charters but also invites citizens to be

involved in workshops where they are educated about these things. Partnerships with the media

are also used to disseminate this information to citizens (Ibid.).

3. Monitoring by Public Watchdogs

These social accountability approaches are characterized by a focus on surveying,

monitoring and rating the quality of public service providers. The Citizen Report Card developed

in Bangalore India by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC) is a good example of such an approach.

Ackerman refers to the Citizen Report Card (CRC) as an approach with a positive sum, rewards


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based view of accountability (2005, 23). Recognizing the fact that citizens their selves know

best about the quality of public services since it is they that use them, the Citizen Report Card is

used by citizens to rate these services. The goal is that this rating be used as a form offeedback

to judge the performance of a service provider and serve as an input to the government in policy

making and reform (Ravindra 2004, 1).

An interesting extension of this program was the Children Report Card Survey, where

children are involved in rating the services of their communities. The aim of this is to allow

children to be conscious and involved in community advocacy from an early age. Children, while

accompanied by an adult volunteer, have surveyed the quality of public roads, water, garbage

and greenery (Sirker & Cosic 2007, 61-62).

Key enablers of Social Accountability Initiatives

In the course of their research on mapping social accountability initiatives in South Asia,

Sirker and Cosic (2007) found certain elements to be crucial to the success of these approaches.

One of these enablers of social accountability initiatives was the power of information. All

approaches according to the researchers relied heavily on the use of information on public

services or budgets to spur on the action of citizens to hold public officials to account. Whether

the information is voluntary disclosure by state agencies or the generation of contested information by

civil society groups, information has the potential to bring about change(2007, 77).

Another enabler was the presence of local champions who drove and motivated the

community to accomplish the activities of these initiatives. Finally the importance of local

capacity building was highlighted as another key enabler for the success of social accountability

initiatives. It was necessary to conduct some form of citizen education exercises in order to


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impart community members with the skills they would use to carry out the activities that social

accountability entails.

This chapter has looked at the theoretical development of social accountability

approaches and examined different examples of these approaches in practice. The following

chapter presents World Vision International and its approach to social accountability called

Citizen Voice and Action.


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Chapter 3

World Vision Citizen Voice and Action

World Vision International is a Christian development and advocacy organization

dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and

injustice (World Vision International 2012). In 1999 it had a budget of 600 million USD (Ferris

2011, 612) making it one of the largest NGOs in the world. It began in 1950 by caring for

children made orphans during the Korean War and today it has grown to have over 40,000 staff

in almost 100 countries (World Vision International 2009).

World Visions broad range of activities fall into three categories: that of disaster relief,

advocacy and community development (World Vision International 2012a). World Vision India

is one of World Visions national offices with programs operating in 174 districts in India

(World Vision India 2012). World Vision India performs all of its community development work

through Area Development Programs or ADPs. ADPs are geographical regions in a country

identified by World Vision with the highest need of development aid. Each ADP covers a

population of around 20,000 to 1,000,000 people and lasts for a period of 12-15 years before it is

intentionally phased out to promote sustainability of the endeavor (World Vision Indi 2012a.).

After being phased out, local community based organizations (CBOs) in the ADP which are

heavily involved in the development programs from the onset, continue the work of promoting

development in their communities without the support of World Vision. CBOs that World Vision

work with in the ADPs are central to the success of the programs there. World Vision Indias

website states that the goal of the ADP is to empower the people so that they can eventually

own (meaning self-manage) their development process, pointing to the centrality of the

principle of sustainability in their actions (Ibid.).


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What is Citizen Voice and Action?

World Visions Citizen Voice in Action is a community based social accountability tool

which aims to increase dialogue between ordinary citizens and the institutions that provide

services to the public. It also aims to improve accountability from the administrative and political

sections of government (both national and local) in order to improve the delivery of public

services (Winterford 2009, 1). CVA was first implemented in 2005 in Uganda and Brazil, and

was referred to as Community Based Performance Monitoring. The CVA Guidance Notes

compiled by Keren Winterford are a collation of the organizations learnings since 2005 and serve

as a manuscript guiding national offices on how CVA is to be properly implemented in poor

communities. The Guidance Notes however are intentionally flexible leaving a lot of room for

contextual adjustment, so that national offices may adapt the program in a way that works best

for that particular community (Winterford 2009, 6). As of today the CVA approach is utilized in

over two-hundred communities worldwide in twenty-nine different countries (World Vision

International 2011).

The content of the sections below is taken from the CVA Guidance Notes (Winterford

2009) and it presents the different objectives, elements, and phases of CVA.

Objectives and Elements of CVA

The objectives of CVA according to the Guidance Notes are fourfold. CVA aims to see;

a) Empowered and mobilized citizens.

b) Individuals and community groups engaged in local democracy and political participation.

c) Communities demanding action which results in good governance.

d) Citizens influencing policies for improved service delivery (Winterford 2009, 7).


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CVA also possesses four core elements which are information, voice, dialogue and

accountability. Information refers to how citizens are to have increased knowledge on their rights

and entitlements from the government as well as government standards of public service

delivery. Voice refers to the ability of citizens to have a say in the decisions that affect their

lives. This constitutes them having greater opportunities to participate in and influence important

decision making. Dialogue refers to creating understanding and collaborative partnerships with

those in power. And finally accountability refers to duty bearers, power holders and service

providers having higher levels of responsibility towards those they serve (Winterford 2009, 7).

These four elements are the rationale behind CVA work and are reflected in the activities

of the program. The relationship between the four elements is described in the Guidance Notes as

follows;

Access of citizens to information about the delivery of public services providesthe basis for them to voice their views and opinions on these services. Their

views and opinions will be expressed as individuals, as a community, as well as

in dialogue with those in power (service providers and government officials) in

order to demand and obtain accountability from them (Winterford 2009, 12).

Different Phases of CVA

The different phases of CVA implementation are;

(1) Organization and staff preparation

(2) Enabling citizen engagement;

(3) Engagement via community gathering;

(4) Improving services and influencing policy (Winterford 209, 50-151)

Each phase is explained in more detail below.


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Figure 1: Phases of CVA

(Winterford 2009, 1)

1. Organization and Staff PreparationThe first phase of CVA involves only the staff of World Vision and takes place well

before any of the community based monitoring or advocacy activities are conducted.

Organization and staff preparation (OSP) is the initial preparatory phase of CVA in which the

local World Vision staff who will be working with the citizens prepare to do this in the best

manner. Local staff study and analyze the local context with regards to governance,

accountability, and service provision and identify key stake holders that will prove to be key to

the success of the initiative. This phase also consists of training for the local staff by other more

experienced and sometimes external World Vision staff on how best to implement CVA. This

staff capacity building is carried out primarily through two activities, an orientation workshop

and a facilitation workshop. While the orientation workshop informs staff of broader principles

of CVA such as citizenship and governance as well as country specific intricacies of

implementation, the facilitation workshop centers on imparting staff with the specific skills on

how to work with communities in carrying out CVA (Winterford 209, 50-66).


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2. Enabling Citizen EngagementAfter extensively preparing for implementation local World Vision staff then move on to

the next phase of CVA which is enabling citizen engagement. The main objective of this phase is

to ensure that citizens are equipped with the knowledge and tools that will be used to engage in

CVAs activities. Citizens are made aware of their rights as citizens and become cognizant of the

various public policies regarding health, education, water, sanitation and agricultural services

relevant to them. Key to this phase is an identification of government standards for each public

sector i.e. ratio of teacher to students for schools. These standards will be used as benchmarks

during the monitoring activities in the next phase. This phase of CVA corresponds to the

information element of the approach.

In order to ensure that citizens are adequately equipped, staff provide workshops and

formal or informal training sessions. According to the Guidance Notes, this citizen education

phase is not meant to be seen as a one-time event but is meant to continue throughout the entire

CVA process (Winterford 209, 67-84). Education is an important instrument to achieve the

further goals of CVA but it can very well be seen as an outcome in and of itself.

3. Engagement via Community GatheringThe first two phases of CVA primarily concerned World Vision staff either in terms of

preparing for CVA or training citizens to engage in CVA. The third phase of CVA, engagement

via community gathering, shifts the bulk of the action onto the community. The objective of this

phase is for all stakeholders in the community to assess the quality of the public services present

and arrive at a plan of action to improve them. This is done through a meeting referred to as a

Community Gathering (CG). The CG is meant to include all stakeholders in the community i.e.


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villagers or service users, service providers, and public officials. The Guidance Notes divide the

engagement via community gathering into four different activities. The four different activities

are not to be done within the same day though this is technically feasible. Rather the Guidance

Notes recommend that all activities be spread out in the space of around a month.

a) The Initial Meeting. This is intended simply to ensure that all participants and

stakeholders are on board and aware of important logistical elements of the community

gathering. In this meeting involving only a few key representatives of the important

stakeholders, the venue and times for future activities of the community gathering are

planned and confirmed.

b) Monitoring Standards. Around twenty key representatives of all stakeholder groups are

recommended to take part in the monitoring standards activity. The purpose of this is to

obtain information on the quality of public services available in the community. This

according the Guidance Notes is to be done through a focus group discussion in which

the public service standards identified during the citizen education exercises are

compared to the actual state of these public services based on the experience of service

users. Examples of inputs taken from the Guidance Notes are; number of students per

classroom, number of text books in schools, quantity of drugs provided in health centers,

etc. Quantitative inputs which can be counted and measured are preferred over those that

are more subjective. A flipchart is used where a member of World Vision staff records

the information being shared in the FGD in different columns- one for the standards

identified per service, another for the actual situation of the public service, and comments

worth noting raised by FGD participants.


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c) Score Cards. Similar to the monitoring standards exercise, the score cards activity is

also used to gather information on the quality of public services available to the

community. Once again this is done through the use the FGD. This time however, the

community is divided into different groups and several FGDs are conducted. Service

users are divided into different service groups and service providers present perform a

self-evaluation of the services that they offer. Each group provides a rating on services

using a smiley scale. The smiley scale is a five point scale which allows community

members to rate a service from very poor to very good. Different variations of smiling

and frowning faces are used to demarcate the different points of the scale thus providing

a visual representation of the quality of the services in the community.

d) Interface meeting: This is a large meeting of all the stakeholders together in which the

findings from both the monitoring standards session and the score cards session are

shared with the entire group. Aside from this sharing of information the main objective is

for the community to come together as a whole and form and action plan to decide how

best to improve the quality of services offered. The facilitator of the process guides the

discussion on proposals and suggestions that can be made to move forward together and

these are collated on a flip chart to form an action plan. The action plan contains columns

detailing a specific action, who will do it, when, resources needed and sub-activities

required as well as who will monitor the action (Winterford 2009, 85-139).

4. Improving Services and Influencing policyThe final phase of CVA is where the community actually implements the steps of the

action plan decided upon during the community gathering exercise. The Guidance Notes point to


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the fact that every CVA action plan will obviously vary depending on the specific context and

therefore this final phase will vary largely for each community. This phase constitutes in essence,

a community based advocacy campaign in which the information collated during the previous

activities of CVA is used to pressure officials to action. Community members identify the

powerholders with influence to change the situation regarding a specific public service. The

Guidance Notes recommend identifying those closest to the community level and influencing

them to advocate on the behalf of the community to higher officials in regional and national

positions.

The community members are encouraged to be persistent in the case of an unresponsive

government. Activities utilized as part of this phase include meetings, rallies, marches, petitions,

raising the issue in the media or visits to local MPs and other influential stakeholders in the

community (Winterford 2009, 149). Community members are also to take note of the progress

made in carrying out the action plan and celebrate successes no matter how small in achieving

the goals they set out for their selves. This monitoring of progress and celebration can motivate

future action to further improve the condition of public service provision in the village

(Winterford 2009, 140-152).

The process of CVA is meant to be cyclical and is never at any particular point

completely over. Even after World Vision is no longer directly involved in the community, local

CBOs are to continue the process of educating their selves and the broader community on

important public policies, monitoring the current situation regarding public services and

advocating to improve them through local based campaigns.

This section provided an overview of CVA and its different phases. The rest of this study

presents a case study of how this approach was used in Dingerhedi village in the north of India.


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Before answering the research questions of this study which are to discover how CVA was

implemented in Dingerhedi and how the state of public services in the village had changed, a

description of the village and how it is situated as a part of World Vision Indias larger

community development strategy is provided below.

Background on Dingerhedi Village

As explained earlier World Visions community development efforts are done through

Area Development Programs or (ADPs) which are geographical regions in a country with the

highest need of development aid, identified by a World Vision national office. World Vision

India has over 174 ADPs and Dingerhedi is a part of the Mewat ADP which began operations in

1998 though the planning for engagement in the region had been in place as early as 1996. It was

intentionally phased out in September 2010 as it is World Visions practice to restrict their

community development interventions to the short term in order to encourage local

sustainability.

The Mewat region is located in Gurgaon which is the second largest city in the state of

Haryana in the north of India. Mewat is a rural district of Gurgaon. The Mewat Development

Agency states that Mewat is structurally divided into six blocks Nuh, F.P. Jhirka, Nagina,

Punhana, Hathin and Taoru (Mewat Development Agency 2012). According to Anitha

Sadhsavan of World Vision India, the Mewat ADP only served the Taoru block which is

composed of 84 villages (of which one is Dingerhedi). The total population of the Taoru block is

121,169 inhabitants (Ibid.). Of the 84 villages in the Taoru block World Vision had programs in

twenty-two of them and of these twenty-two, six of them were CVA. Therefore CVA was carried

out in Dingerhedi as well as in five other villages in Mewat.


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Characteristics of Dingerhedi

Dingerhedi is located approximately two and a half hours outside of New Delhi in the

state of Haryana in northern India. Villagers that participated in the FGD that will be expounded

on later in this study claimed that Dingerhedi is a rural village with a population of 1,500

inhabitants. The population according to villagers is 50% Hindu and 50% Muslim. The

occupation of the majority of inhabitants are farmers.

Dingerhedi CBOs

As mentioned earlier community based organization or CBOs are the main way that

World Vision is able to achieve its goals in the community. The existence of these organized

groups aids immensely in conducting all of the activities of CVA such as monitoring and

influencing policy. It would be difficult if not nearly impossible to train and equip villagers

efficiently on their rights and how to demand them from public officials without pre-existing

organized groups to facilitate this.

Anitha Sadasivam of World Vision India stated that there are 10-12 CBOs present in

Dingerhedi. They include groups such as different self-help groups, a womens association, and a

childrens club. There is also a CBO referred to as the Village Development Committee or the

VDC. It serves as an umbrella group for all of the other CBOs in Dingerhedi.

These CBOs meet regularly to discuss issues related to the village and how to go about

solving them. For instance, the FGD Dingerhedis Womens Association meets once a month to

discuss things related to womens well-being in the village such as womens health and maternal

care, food rations and many other issues.


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Chapter 4

Findings and Analysis

The findings of this study are organized below according to the two research goals of the

study. Part 1 of this chapter describes how CVA was implemented in Dingerhedi as compared to

the Guidance Notes, while the different ways that CVA was used to improve services in the

village are presented in part 2 of this chapter.

1. CVA as Practiced in DingerhediThis section is organized with respect to the four phases of CVA practice found in the

Guidance Notes which are organization and staff preparation, enabling citizen engagement,

engagement via community gathering and finally improving services and influencing policy. The

first two phases are led by World Vision staff while the latter two involve activities conducted

primarily by the community. Thus two methodologies were used to accurately describe how

CVA was implemented in Dingerhedi, a key informant interview with staff of World Vision

India and a focus group discussion with the villagers of Dingerhedi.

The key informant interview was carried out on the 20th

of March 2012 at the office of

World Vision India in Gurgaon with two of World Visions staff directly involved in CVA in

Dingerhedi. Anitha Sadasivam, a community development coordinator of Mewat and Aashish

Masih, former CVA program manager for Mewat were the two key informants interviewed. The

transcript of this interview can be found in Appendix I of this study.

The FGD took place on Saturday the 31st

of March in Dingerhedi Village. Seven

Dingerhedi village members participated and Anitha Sadasivamof World Vision India, Gurgaon,

was present as well. All of the villagers belonged to a CBO. Two of Dingerhedis twelve


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different CBOs were represented in the FGD, the Womens Village Association and the Village

Development Committee (VDC). Translation was provided by Namrata Achowe from English to

Hindi (for FGD questions) from Hindi to English (for FGD responses).

Note on CVA as an Evolving program

Before delving into the information gathered from the key informant interview and FGD,

an important note on the nature of CVA needs to be made. During the interview Aashish Masih

pointed out the fact that CVA in Dingerhedi was an evolving process and that in fact when it was

first introduced to Mewat, the program now known as CVA was referred to by staff and

beneficiaries alike as Community Based Performance Monitoring (CBPM). CBPM as the name

implies involved only the community engagement aspects of CVA i.e. the monitoring and rating

of the public services as a community. According to Aashish Masih, CVA evolved from CBPM

into a more complete and holistic approach, adding the other phases namely enabling citizen

engagement and influencing policy around 2009. The CVA guidance notes (published in 2009)

are a culmination of all the learning that World Vision has accrued in the years of its

implementation. This is important to keep in mind while comparing CVA as practiced in

Dingerhedi to the Guidance Notes on CVA which were finalized over a year after the

implementation of CVA in Dingerhedi had begun.

Organization and Staff Preparation

The CVA Guidance Notes state that the CVA process is actually meant to begin well

before any activities with the community are carried out. In this initial preparatory phase local

WV staff are meant to learn about CVA, familiarize their selves with the context in which it is to


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be practiced and strategize on how to best approach it. Anitha Sadasivam claimed that in

Dingerhedi, the organization and staff preparation phase involved a series of trainings on what

exactly CVA was in order to prepare local staff to roll it out in the ADPs and villages where they

would be working. She explained that in 2007, Keren Winterford, Technical Specialist for CVA

& Integrated Programming Model from World Vision Australia and main author of the CVA

Guidance Notes, led a nine day training on CVA for World Vision ADP program managers from

all over India which included field visits to different ADPs. At this time the program was still

referred to as CBPM and involved mostly the community engagement elements of what is now

CVA.

In 2008 Lokesh Malviya, Mewat ADPs Program Manager, who had been trained by

Winterford the previous year, organized a one day workshop on CVA with a few selected leaders

from the community based organizations in Mewat. The workshop was held in Dingerhedi and it

informed the local CBO leaders who would hold the main responsibility of conducting CVAs

activities, of what the rationale behind CVA was and how to best motivate the rest of the

community to participate. Present in the workshop were twenty-five CBO leaders, five

representatives from five different villages of which Dingerhedi was one. They were trained on

how to mobilize their communities to conduct the monitoring and rating exercises that the

community engagement aspect of CVA entailed.

Anitha Sadasivam attended this one day workshop as a member of World Vision staff

though it was primarily for CBO leaders. She had just begun working with World Vision at the

Mewat ADP and this was her first real first-hand involvement with CVA. She claimed that she

attended in order to learn how as staff she could be able to gauge the progress that this approach

would have on the community. She has since become the most important link between


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Dingerhedi village and WV staff and thus the best contact to describe the step by step process

CVA took in Dingerhedi.

Enabling Citizen Engagement

The CVA Guidance Notes describe the enabling citizen engagement phase as the next

phases of CVA in which WV staff prepare villagers to participate in CVA by equipping them

with the knowledge and the tools to adequately carry out CVAs activities. According to Anitha,

before this took place it was necessary to encourage the participation and support of all the

community members (and not just the CBO members) for CVA. Different activities were

conducted to raise awareness about CVA in the community. Anitha stated, for awareness we did

a street play to make people aware of their entitlements and we also did house to house

awareness, talking to people about the benefits of the program and telling people about their

rights.

World Vision also organized two workshops to train villagers on their rights or what they

could expect from the government in terms of public services. This knowledge would form the

basis for all the activities they would perform to transform their village. The first workshop was

held in 2008 and it was repeated two years later in 2010. The FGD held with villagers of

Dingerhedi shed some light on what exactly it was that villagers were educated on regarding

their rights and entitlements during these workshops. One participant said when asked about the

content of these trainings, The people that come from outside, from World Vision, they used

charts to explain to us our different rights and how to use the RTI Act and other such things that

the government provides. This participant made mention to the Right to Information Act or the

RTI Act which is a piece of legislation that gives Indian citizens the right to demand information


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from their government regarding any public service or government function. Though the RTI Act

is a piece of legislation dating back to 2005 (Roberts 2010, 925) many villagers were unaware of

its existence before the CVA trainings, but after the trainings one FGD participant referred to

another village member as an RTI expert.

The RTI Act and its use were mentioned numerous times in the course of the FGD,

revealing its highly important role as perhaps the most important tool for the success of CVA in

Dingerhedi. Based on responses from staff and villagers, the RTI Act performed two functions

which were crucial to CVA. First of all it was a means by which the villagers could gather

information about the state of a public service in their village. As mentioned earlier, awareness

and information are central to empowering citizens. Without accurate information on important

aspects of public service citizens cannot mobilize to change the situation and the RTI Act

provided citizens with this crucial information. For instance, an RTI application could be sent out

to inquire about why a decrepit road had not been repaired (as was the case in Dingerhedi). It

was thus a means of communication between the villagers and the local government that provide

public services. Secondly the RTI Act served as an essential deterrent to poorly performing

public officials which enabled the citizens to keep them accountable. Villagers explained that the

RTI Act dictates that public officials are to respond to requests for information made through an

RTI application, within a month of their filing and if this isnt the case, these public officials can

face serious consequences including a loss of their job. The filing of an RTI application itself can

cause an official to have his job threatened and villagers reported that having this power over the

officials was essential to effecting change in their community. One FGD participant stated, The

level of awareness has increased tremendously and now people can file RTI applications and get

the officers who are usually redundant to start working.Thus the RTI application once filed was


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a concrete tool available to citizens which was used to keep service providers and officials

accountable. The use of the RTI Act was mentioned so many times that a section explaining the

process of its filing is included at the end of this chapter.

CVA Villagers where not only educated on the RTI Act and how to use it during the

enabling citizen engagement phase. They also mentioned being made aware of different

government services that were available to them for free but which they were unaware of. This

was voiced out by one respondent who claimed, before World Vision we did know what type

of schemes were available but now we know what type of schemes the government does and

which department of the government it is related to.

They were also introduced to the smiley scale which is a means of rating the quality of

services of health workers, teachers and other service providers in the village. The smiley scale is

a simple five point system whereby the quality of services can be visually rated using a drawing

of a round smiley face to denote excellent services, a neutral face to denote O.K services and a

frowning face to denote poor services.

According to Anitha the enabling citizen engagement phase of CVA is the final phase of

World Visions directinvolvement in CVA. When we educated them on their entitlements, from

there it was their responsibility and we were only monitoring. So we gave them the information

and the knowledge and the rest is left up to them. Anitha claimed that contact is nevertheless

kept with the village CBO members and they can always contact World Vision for advice on

how to approach a particular issue.

Engagement via Community Gathering

FGD participants were asked to describe what took place after they had received this

training on their rights and entitlements and been equipped with tools such as the RTI Act. They


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stated that they then came together to discuss exactly how they would use these tools to address

the issues and problems that plague their society. This phase of the CVA process in Dingerhedi

corresponds roughly to the enabling via community gathering phase in the CVA Guidance notes.

According to participants of the FGD this discussion took place regularly during monthly village

meetings that take place in Dingerhedi organized by the Village Development Council (VDC).

The VDC is the umbrella organization of all of Dingerhedis CBOs. A typical VDC meeting

includes all of the villagers and takes place once every month, usually on the tenth of each month

but can be organized hastily in case of an emergency.

During these meetings the current state of services are rated based on the experience of

the villagers who use these services. We use the smiley scale to rate the role of the Anganwadi

people [childrens health specialists], the teachers in the schools so that we can assess the roles

of these people. Like whether they were good or not good, or active. The community also made

trips to the actual facilities i.e. schools or hospitals and in order to accurately survey their

performance and the results of these trips were discussed in the meetings.

Children were also involved in the process as the following statement from an FGD

participant made clear. The children gave their inputs about the quality of education and the

overall satisfaction with the school. So they gave their input and their suggestion and proposals

on how they can improve they rated in with the smiley scale.

From the description of this process by the FGD participants, it appears that there is a

difference between how the engagement via community gathering phase of CVA was carried out

in Dingerhedi and how it is described in the Guidance Notes. Villagers refer to the use of

monthly meetings to discuss their plan of action rather than a formal community gathering as

described in the Guidance Notes. In addition, though reference was made to the splitting up of


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the meetings into different groups, no mention was made of the presence of service providers or

public officials in these meetings and the Guidance Notes state that representatives of these key

stake holders should be present in the process. This appears to be the first major deviation in the

practice of CVA in Dingerhedi from how it is described.

Improving services and influencing policy

Improving services and influencing policy is the final phase of the CVA process. As

described in the Guidance Notes, during this phase the community is to carry out a community

based advocacy campaign to improve the state of public services in their village. This involves

utilizing the information gathered through the monitoring and rating activities and presenting this

information to authorities or duty bearers with the ability to change the situation, and pressuring

them to do just that.

However responses from the FGD suggested that this phase of CVA took a different form

in Dingerhedi. The primary means by which efforts were made to influence and improve services

was through the use of the RTI Act. This filing of RTI applications and the responses that

officials would give to them appeared to be the primary means of communication between public

officials and villagers from the responses given in the FGD. (The specifics of exactly how

villagers set out to improve the public services in their village are detailed in the second part of

this chapter).

FGD respondents however made mention of some other ways that advocacy was

achieved outside of the use of the RTI application. In these instances, villagers went directly to

the underperforming service providers (not to the public officials who hire or fire them) and

simply asked them to do a better job. This was the case with a local health worker (who also


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resided in the village) who according to villagers was doing a poor job. Villagers approached

her, told her they knew what they could expect from her and asked her to get to doing it. This

direct approaching of service providers constitutes another variation from the process outlined in

the Guidance Notes. However it seemed to be effective especially since the service provider

approached was a local to the village and therefore was presumably easily accessible.

Community pressure of this kind would likely be very effective when coming from neighbors

who one sees on a daily basis.

Documents

KUKU WV Disertation the Case for Social Accountability